


March Twenty-Third

by thegreatandpowerfultoaster



Series: Butterfly Effect [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Amnesty (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Comedy of Errors, Danbrey and indruck more in later chapters, Multi, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Trope Inversion, Tropes, also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 16:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18253493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatandpowerfultoaster/pseuds/thegreatandpowerfultoaster
Summary: Due to strange circumstances, everyone in Kepler, West Virginia is stuck living the same day over again. Slightly more fortunately, Stern knows full well how this is going to play out.Or maybe not.





	March Twenty-Third

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in a constant state of on my bullshit so were I to claim that I were back on it, that would be wholly inaccurate. Have some more of my bullshit guys.

**_Saturday March 23, 21:12 Amnesty Lodge_ **

 

Getting back to the lodge feels excellent. He's been leaving every day to help with the cleanup of that sinkhole that has opened up in the middle of town, now that he hasn't got an actual job.

It was hard work but it did earn him some goodwill and things were looking a great deal better out there. 

The door sticks a little when he tries to come in, but he figures he can mention it to Barclay or Mama since they'd probably want to know, before he hangs up his coat and straightens out his suit jacket that he's hoping to shed permanently as soon as the mail decides to deliver him his stuff from home.

Down the hall in the lobby he can hear Mama. "-No one gets in or out until we figure this out, okay? Was that the door? Ned, get whoever that is out of here, now."

Ned rushes through to the end of the hall, waves at him, and yells back. "It's just Stern!"

"Tell him we've got this one sorted!"

"But he already knows-"

"Well excuse a few people for still being nervous after all this time, alright! Tell him to go spend the night at Duck's apartment or something."

They're yelling back and forth like he can't hear, which isn't fantastic. Yes supposed to be an equal part of this team, and for one he'd like to be treated as such. "What is going on?!"

Ned turns back around and grimaces at him. "Well, the abomination sort of shorted out the magic in everyone's disguises unless certain...demands are met so you've got to go-Oh god! I need to call Kirby right this very instant! Mama, I have to go, I've got a family emergency."

He rushes out the door before Stern or anyone else gets in a word edgewise, but that means he's free to walk into the lobby. 

The lights are all off, which is strange, but he knows the place well enough to work his way through without running into anything. 

The only things he can really see is the light of the hallway shining onto Mama in the back of the room and a pair of huge red eyes in the corner, which look terribly close to...Well, he'll have to ask someone about that later.

They're all being remarkably quiet, too. Nervous, maybe? He supposed he would understand that. Not all of them liked or trusted him still. 

Several had been perused by humans, (government or otherwise) before so he could understand it from that point of view too.

It still didn't make the less-logical part of him feel any better about it.

"Alright." He stops in the middle of the room, or what feels like it must be the middle of the room. "Since you obviously don't want my help with this once, I'm going to bed."

"I'll be up in a minute," comes the voice of his lovely boyfriend who might've been a little nervous around him at first (which was with good reason) but Stern likes to think they've gotten past that at this point. So why does he sound so upset?

He nods before realizing that Barclay probably couldn't see that and keeps heading towards the stairs. H

Someone else calls for him, from the far corner of the room, in the direction of the glowing red eyes that he's pretty sure belong to the Mothman. "Do watch out for Moira, I don't think she particularly enjoys-" 

It's too late of a warning, and Suddenly Stern is freezing cold and the voice of Moria is apologizing profusely and he still can't see her despite just going through her. That crosses her off of his, _'What is This Lodge Resident Actually?'_  list. She's a ghost and he has some questions about that but right now is definitely not the time to ask them.

Aubrey and Jake are definitely the ones laughing at him, but he just continues upstairs and fiddles with the doorknob until it finally gives. 

Weird. Maybe not the  _weirdest_  thing that has happened in the last two months, since he's leaned about this whole ordeal. But...it's still pretty far up there in the list. 

He neatly hangs up his suit jacket and folds his button down and ends up digging through the drawer to find his notepad, throws himself on the big, soft bed, and flips to a new page and writes down _'MOTHMAN??'_

It looks like it should be tacked to a corkboard with a dozen other papers and maybe some yarn connecting it to some fuzzy puctures, but maybe that's just him being self conscious about his handwriting style again, being that Bigfoot existed, he'd seen a vampire, and today he'd learned that the woman he'd asked to teach him piano was a ghost. 

Oh yeah. He wrote that down, too on the aforementioned list which left...well everyone except Barclay, Dani, and Moira. He'd written 'Human' down next to Mama (And Ned) but very lightly because he wanted to be absolutely sure before he dismissed anything else.

He's so absorbed now in flipping through and looking at and updating his lists, and thinking about what sort of monster might be able to cause something like that, that he barely even hears Barclay come in. He's holding his bracelet in one hand and looking terribly somber. 

"You okay? I mean, I know this is bad, since it limits who can go out and fight the abomination...But other than that?"

"I want to be positive about this...But not really. It's kind of more that."

"Oh? What is it?" Stern smiles and sit's up to take Barclay's hand and pull him towards bed. He really is exhausted, but he wants to stop Barclay from worrying first. 

He shakes his head a little bit. "Don't worry about it until tomorrow, okay? I'll still be here then. You don't...you don't mind me sleeping here?"

 "Of course not."

He's very happy when after a minute or so of silent pacing Barclay decides to lay bed to him and Stern can make an attempt at wrapping his arms all around him and snuggling into his chest.

 

 

_**Sunday March 24, 5:36 Amnesty Lodge** _

 

He wakes up the same way he has for a few weeks now and it's perfect. 

Except...Oh!

Well, that problem fixed itself, it seemed since Barclay was back to looking like a human. That was good. That meant there was going to be no more awkward trying to figure this whole thing out and more monster hunting. 

But, until he was asked to be on the case, he wasnt going to worry about it. Instead, he'd ask around (very carefully) to see if anyone knew who the Mothman was.

A part of him gets excited just to say that and know that it'll probably lead somewhere this time.  Stern smiles just thinking about it and gently moves to brush a little bit of Barclay's hair out of his eyes and plant a kiss on his forehead before hopping out of bed.

They'll still talk later, and Stern wouldn't miss it for the world, but he knows that he won't be able to get to sleep before he gets his hands on a lead. 

And Barclay will save him breakfast, anyways and he'll get to thank him with kisses and whatever else he wants, and isn't that wonderful?

That's why he practically skips to the front door once he's dressed and begins buttoning up his coat. "Ah, Agent Stern?" 

It's that same voice from last night. He's certain. So he starts unbuttoning his coat as he turns around. "Hello!"

This man is not a resident of the lodge, but he's here during lockdown, which isn't his only clue that he's a Sylph but it sure is a big one. The other thing is just how he looks. Which is sort of a bad indicator, maybe. Or at least in other cases it is.

This man has an oversized black sweater on, and pajama pants that are definitely not his, and silver hair that's black at the roots. His legs are just a little too long in compaisionto his torso, and his cheekbones sit just a little too high up to be right, somehow.

And probably most tellingly, he wears large red glasses, reminiscent of the big red eyes watching him from the corner last night.

Stern has thought that the idea of these human disguises were to fit in...But this man wouldn't fit in quite right anywhere but here.

He smiles widely. Wider than should be possible. "Its lovely to finally meet you. I'm Indrid Cold, you might-"

 _"-The grinning man -"_ They say together.

"Yes, thank you. Also-"

_"-Mothman, how'd you know what I was going to say?"_

His smile still hasn't disappeared although Stern's polite one had as soon as his sentences were finished with him. Weird. He was. ..both the Grinning Man and Mothman and apparently psychic. 

"I can see the furute. Not perfectly, mind you, just well enough to be useful. You were looking for me, but I was also wondering if I could ask you a question?"

"Uhh, sure. Go ahead. But don't you already know the answer?"

Indrid Cold shakes his head. "I'm not a mind reader, and the chances are quite low that you'll actually answer..." At this point he looks a little sheepish being those big, reflective red lenses. At least Stern thinks so. "I'm also working on holding normal conversations a bit better, if you can believe it. My question is what are you looking for?"

He's taken back a bit by that question, honestly. No one's ever asked him that, and it's awfully broad. "Well, answers, I guess. That hasn't changed since I quit."

 "Alright. Thank you. I hope you have a good rest of your day, tomorrow is going to be terribly long for you. although I don't know why. Hmm, isn't the abomination supposed to show up today-ish? Maybe I ought to warn-"

He doesn't even try to correct Mr. Cold that the abomination came through yesterday. Seeing the future all the time likely messes up that sort of thing, at least he'd think so. 

Cold wanders off in the direction of one of the guest wings, muttering to himself about not being able to see past today.

Which is weird, but not really, because if this abomination could mess with their magical disguises it made sense that it could mess with other people's powers, too.

Barclay has since sort of shambled down to the kitchen and started to mix up batter in a huge bowl. He isn't really a morning person Stern has learned, as opposed to his own inability to sleep past six-thirty, but that's alright.  He hugs him again before proudly exclaiming, "I found the Mothman."

Barclay snorts. "Knowing him, he probably found you first."

"Insensitive! I trained for years to search people out like a bloodhound." And he's always been excellent at it. Just blindsided this last time because he maybe was worrying too much about what the people of Kepler thought about him. All water under the bridge, really.

"But  _you_  can't see the future, Babe."

Stern's heart beats a little harder in his chest because he is so hopelessly in love. It's kind of annoying but he also understands the little jumpstarts to his heartbeat won't last forever. "Okay, yeah you're right. He found me."

He smiles a little smugly. "He always does. Huh, though. That must mean he had to move his camper...and Mama let him stay here, which would be weird if I didn't hear her complaining about how quiet it is around here lately."

"She likes the tourists?" She sure doesn't seem like she would. The Amnesty lodge is a front for a home, and he just can't see her as the type to be happy with strangers in her home. 

Barclay offers a small shug. "She likes getting to fuss over more people. Plus, I think she likes the little kids more than she acts like she does.."

That's kind of a comedic though, but he doesn't laugh. "Hey, so you mind if I go downstairs and read through some more  Pineguard stuff? They're about finished cleaning up from that sinkhole, so I figured I might as well get some more reading  done."

"Knock yourself out! I've got to clean some rooms and do some laundry and stuff like that, so I might not be up to bed until late-"

Stern doesn't carefully remind him that that's why he was going to be late last night before the whole abomination debacle, and that he's allowed to take a break or two. "It's your job, don't apologize."

 

 

He spends the day going through the most  _fascinating_  accounts of hunting something  almost like a stereotypical vampire, and a huge rock monster before he realizes that it is very, very late and heads up the stairs. 

Except the lights are off in the lobby again. And Stern sighs. Is this going to become a nightly thing until is abomination was killed, or was sitting together in the lobby while out of disguises just a thing that he wasn't allowed to know about, or take part in?

Because it's late, yeah but not late enough for everyone to have gone to bed yet. 

Large red eyes glare at him from the same far corner of the room, but he knows who they belong to, now.

"Mr. Stern is about to ask us while we're sitting out here again," he calls.

 Someone else chimes in with, "Again? What do you mean  _again_?"

"He is going to say that we were doing this last night. Does anyone recall that? I believe I was in Duck's apartment last night so I cannot possibly provide an alibi for all of y-"

 "All of our disguises shorted out just a minute ago!" says Dani's disembodied voice. 

Ned cuts her explanation off from one of the couches near the entrance with a very panicked "Oh no! I've got to call Kirby! Mama, I've got to run, family emergency!" Stern watches him run to the hall , and the farther he gets away the more his sense of dread grows. 

 

~~_**S̶u̶n̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶M̶a̶r̶c̶h̶ ̶2̶4̶,̶ ̶2̶1̶:̶1̶2̶ ̶A̶m̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶L̶o̶d̶g̶e̶** _ ~~

_**Saturday March 23, 21:13 Amnesty Lodge** _

 

Okay. Okay so...this was all yesterday? Or maybe they just didn't remember that this had happened before. "What day is it?" Her asks the darkness in front of him. There's a some chatter, but the answer is clear. March twenty-third. Yesterday.  _Fabulous_.

 His voice breaks a little as he says, "Okay. Alright. I'll be upstairs. Hope you guys get this sorted out."

It isn't like he wants it to be true. It isn't like he  _wants_  to be the only one to remember the other day but this is a serious problem. At the bottom of the drawer he finds his notebook and flips to the last used page. Not...Not what he'd written in it. Not 'MOTHMAN??' in his less than professional handwriting

He takes a deep breath and tries not to panic. Alright. He's trained for this. well, not really but he's trained for a lot of things, and if this is entirely up to him than its entirely up to him.

But...but it's best to not take any action right now. Maybe he can still wake up and it'll be tomorrow. He paces for another minuite, trying to just breath a little more evenly before falling into bed and forcing himself not to think about anything at all.

 


End file.
